影片
更多
2010-04-13
15 浏览
The restaurant has been doing a bit of promotion lately, featured in 2 of the popular free mags around town, so after reading the reviews from fellow openricers, I decided to give it a try and suggested it to my significant other and his family. Fingers were crossed that the restaurant won't screw up and make me look like a fool.Reservations are recommended as this place gets very full, even on a Monday night. I love how they randomly put a little round bar table with a high chair in the middle
Reservations are recommended as this place gets very full, even on a Monday night. I love how they randomly put a little round bar table with a high chair in the middle of the wet market, and there was a guy who made good use of it, tasting his wine and imagining that he was actually on Wyndham instead. Joe was running around taking orders, filling wine, overseeing the kitchen, and pretty much everything else. There were quite a few staff in red shirts, but they all seemed a bit clueless about what makes a restaurant tick, and had to be reminded by Joe constantly to "do the right thing". But it's good to see that they are hiring new staff and giving them training in the F&B business. The infamous red and white checkered table cloth singled their territory out from the other restaurants, and despite being a bit crumpled, were clean and hole-less. Don't expect a quiet dinner staring into the eyes of your beloved over candle light - it's full-on market hustle and bright lights in your face. The contrast is actually quite interesting, if you're into this sort of scene.
The food, in a nutshell, was faultless. The homemade bread was toasted to just the right temperature, hot enough to melt the butter, crispy on the outside and not burnt, and very moist and chewy on the inside. We wanted a second basket, but Joe apologetically said that the plate of dough had fallen onto the floor and they couldn't provide any more bread that night. That was honest of him, he could have just picked them up and baked them anyway. Good on him, but shame we didn't get any more bread. The set dinner came with fresh orange juice, squeezed on the premises with bits of flesh still floating around, or you could swap it for a tea/coffee at the end.
To start off with, the bouillabaisse was chock full of lovely seafood - 2 types of fish, 2 ginormous prawns, quite a few clams, 2 seared scallops, cherry tomatoes and onions. For $138, it looks pricey compared with the other items on the menu, but if you share that between 2 person, it's well worth the price. The beetroot borsch was interesting too, deep crimson in colour, with many cubes of beetroot and a dollop of cream to finish it off. It was light and there was a little bit of oil from the stock, but it was a very light dish and a good introduction to the rest of the meal. We ordered all varieties of pasta/risotto amongst the 5 of us: linguine with clams in cream sauce (very light cream sauce, perfectly seasoned, a healthy serving of fresh clams, lots of herbs to give it a fresh lift), the bacon in tomato cream sauce (looked very delicious though I didn't get to try it, the bacon was a deep brown coloured and looked almost burnt but i was told it was very good and smoky), the beetroot risotto (a bright psychedelically coloured dish of well cooked risotto, topped with cheese ?mozarella/cream cheese - I didn't have any so couldn't tell, and a handful of fresh salad greens, which gave the creamy risotto a good contrast in texture.
But the star of the night had to be the roast suckling pig. It was magnificent, and cooked to perfection. I'm normally not a porky person, but having read so much good raves on it, I decided I had to try it or else my trip would have been in vain. The crackling was paper thin, VERY crispy, and utterly devoid of fat, and when eaten together with the juiciest, tenderest, melt-in-your-mouth piece of pork, muscle fibres still clearly visible and a slight coating of fat to give it that moistness, it was simply heaven. I can't wax enough lyrical about it, you have to try it to understand. The potatoes and asparagus deserved a mention too - fresh ingredients, cooked with skill, and you can tell something about the chef when even the simplest accompanying veg was done so well.
Sticky toffee pudding with ice cream was a great way to finish it off, the sole customer who ordered it on our table was so engrossed in the dessert that she completely ignored a most hilarious joke being told at the table.
Joe, if you're wondering who I am, I'm the chick who offered you a nice glass of Penfolds Grange 2003.
张贴